subarctic ideations

We wanted to create a genetic drift graph for purposes of decoration. After briefly studying the concepts of genetic drift and a few online simulators I utilized what I knew about random numbers and built the following model.

An initial population is created. Each individual is given a variant, either 0 or 1, to represent a variant of a gene or an allele. The simulation starts; new individuals are born, old ones die and the population size fluctuates.

To obtain a process looking similar to the one of a genetic drift I gave each newborn a random number, in the range 0 to 1, to compare with the population average variant; the population containing individuals with variants 0 or 1, has an average variant between, or equal to, 0 and 1.

If the newborn's random number is lower than the average variant it is given the variant 1. If greater it is given the variant 0. Consequently, if the average reaches 1 (all individuals have a variant of 1 and the gene variant is fixed), all newborn's random numbers are lower and therefore all newborns are given a variant of 1. Likewise if the average reaches 0 (all individuals have a variant of 0 and the gene variant is lost), all newborn's random numbers are greater and all newborns are given a variant of 0.

This method does not represent the population and it's gene variants accurately. One would think if 80% of the population has a specific gene variant, in our case the average variant of 0.8, the probability of a newborn with this variant would be closer to 80%, not 20% as it is in the current model. However this model was able to provide us visually with what we were after.

The boreal winter is associated with reports of depression, irritability, insomnia, absentmindedness, and the occurrence of mild fugue states known as "long-eye" or the "subarctic stare".

Post-September, life renounces existence and the tundra reaches a glacial stasis over which we spend eight months under conditions of prolonged confinement. Its extraordinary isolation is not merely geophysical but biophysical in nature and metaphysical in the subjective.

Extended residence in the subarctic is associated with a significant reduction in triiodothyronine (T3). A thyroid hormonal condition known as Polar T3 Syndrome and has a strong correlation with increased depressive symptomatology and disruption of cognitive performance.

In its depressive states, the contents of my consciousness self-organize into a semantic network whose nodes are so obscure, so alien as to approach being meaningless.

In this sector of the boreal cycle, belonging is thwarted and self-perception becomes so burdensome that the neural nodes from which my consciousness emerges are excited only once a week.

Now that I have explained my predicament I hope you understand that I am dealing with a diseased mind. A brain which thinks that only what happens every seventh night is true.

So every seventh, on a true polar night, the veil of frozen clouds evaporates from the upper atmosphere and a barren void eclipses the sky in a shroud so black so that it seems like a nullification of existence itself.

I can feel myself getting much more irritable and spacier as winter prolongs. Over telecommunications dispatch, my friends south of 65° assure me this cycle is temporary. In turn, I reassure them that my neural pathways are mostly calm, cause from here I can see the stars.

In 1362 this volcano erupted explosively, devouring every settlement within reach. Post-event the zone became known as Öræfi.

Last October, during our visit to this place we sensed a sudden subterranean shift take form below us. Strong tremors were arising from the depth beneath the summit crater. A seismic jolt rang in our skulls. A foretaste of the devastation that will follow across the zone when the young volcano awakens with a tantrum spitting death into the sky, unleashing unimaginable horror upon the human epoch. #anthropocene

So, we headed south to interview Bergur Einarsson, an expert in the field of megafloods and wilderness emergency response.

Convinced that the volcano is showing signs of reawakening; he detailed a sequence of awful events awaiting the settlement.

Bergur Einarsson certified Wilderness First Responder WFR

† The word öræfi is used to denote wilderness, desolation and a place without a harbor. The word is probably composed of the prefix ör- which is mainly used in a negative or implied harsh meaning, and hóf (moderation, fit, something appropriate, suitable). Adding the negative prefix -ör the true meaning assumes the form of "something obscene, irrational, insane place".